Latin American Boom

The Latin American Boom (Boom Latinoamericano) is the name applied to a period during the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. These latin american literature starts with the rising of Jose Marti, Ruben Darío and José Asunción Silva´s modernism stepping aside from the european canon of writing. --Miriamcc (talk) 11:23, 11 February 2008 (UTC)miriam--Miriamcc (talk) 11:23, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

This sudden success (hence the movement's name) came in large part thanks to the fact that these authors' works were among the first Latin American novels to be published in Europe, by publishing houses such as Barcelona's Seix Barralin Spain. One of these published novels was the novel La ciudad y los Perros written by Mario Vargas Llosa. --Miriamcc (talk) 11:23, 11 February 2008 (UTC)miriam--Miriamcc (talk) 11:23, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

The Boom's major representatives include:

the Argentine Julio Cortázar borned in Belgium in 1914 and died in Paris, France in 1985, he was influenced by Borges his works are Final del Juego, Bestionario, Las Armas Secretas, Todos los juegos el fuego, the storytellers of Rayuela and the Premios, novels like: Historia de Cronopios and another famous novel is Vuelta al día en 80 mundos. His most important work was the novel Rayuela.
the Mexicans Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz and Juan Rulfo]
the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, and perhaps especially
the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez.

However, in the light of these authors' success, the work of a previous generation of writers (such as Jorge Luis Borges (1898-1986) his famous novels were Fervor de Buenos Aires, Luna de Enfrente, El Aleph, Historia Universal de la Infamia, Ficciones, Elogio de las Sombras, informe de Crodie, Oro de los Tigres, Inquisiciones e Historia de la Eternidad He wrote stories that he described as fiction or symbolic stories, with real or imaginary characters which move between the reality, magic and satire scene. --miriam11:23, 11 February 2008 (UTC)Miriamcc (talk) Miguel Ángel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, and Juan Rulfo) also gained access to a new and expanded public.

As well as being a publishing phenomenon, the Boom introduced a series of novel aesthetic and stylistic features to world literature. Though the various Boom authors often differ very much from each other, and should not be regarded strictly as a school or movement, they have come to be associated above all with so-called magical realism.

Hallmarks

Magical realism

The awestruck writings of the Chroniclers of the Indies and their sense of being in another world, conquering strange new lands unparalleled outside of chivalric romances, became a cultural touchstone for the people of Latin America. From these fantastical tales developed a new aesthetic, which matured into magical realism and (as conceived by Alejo Carpentier) marvelous realism or lo real maravilloso. According to this aesthetic, unreal things are treated as if realistic and mundane, and mundane things as if unreal. Plots, while often based on real experiences, incorporate strange, fantastic, and legendary elements, mythical peoples, speculative settings, and characters who, while plausible, could also be unreal, and combine the true, the imaginary, and the nonexistent in such a way that they are difficult to separate.

Comparing a novel written before the Boom to one written under its influence, the former is likely to strive for authenticity and reality, depicting a plain and somber reality, while the latter strives to show multiple facets of each character and each place. Boom literature breaks down the barriers between the fantastical and the mundane, transforming this mixture into a new reality.

Manipulation of time

A common literary technique of the Boom period is nonlinear chronology.^{[citation needed]} For example, a traditional Latin American novel might begin with the protagonists meeting one another, overcoming many problems, and finally getting married. In a novel written during the Boom, the opening scenes might depict a marriage. "Later", the discovery of the fiancé's infidelity would prompt the fiancée to attempt suicide, only to be rescued by her unfaithful intended. Their love rekindled, the couple would end the novel preparing for the marriage related at the beginning. Such skewed chronologies are no longer remarkable, but they were uncommon in Latin American literature before the Boom.

Post-Boom

Since the 1980s it has become common to speak of Post-Boom writers, most of whom were born during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The Post-Boom is distinct from the Boom in various respects, most notably in the presence of female authors such as Isabel Allende.

Chronology

Some of the major publications and landmarks of the Boom and its precursors:

1949: Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo
1949: Miguel Angel Asturias, Hombres de maíz
1955: Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo
1962: Carlos Fuentes, La muerte de Artemio Cruz
1963: Mario Vargas Llosa, La ciudad y los perros
1963: Julio Cortázar, Rayuela
1964: Clarice Lispector, A paixão segundo G.H.
1966: Emir Rodríguez Monegal founds Mundo Nuevo (1966–1971) in Paris
1966: José Lezama Lima, Paradiso
1967: Miguel Angel Asturias awarded the Nobel Prize in literature
1967: Gabriel García Márquez, Cien años de soledad
1967: Jorge Amado, Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos
1967: Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Tres tristes tigres
1967: Severo Sarduy, From Cuba with a Song / De donde son los cantantes
1970: José Donoso, El obsceno pájaro de la noche
1974: Augusto Roa Bastos, Yo, el Supremo
1982: Gabriel García Márquez awarded the Nobel Prize in literature

External links

Coleman, Alexander. "Guide to the Latin American Boom." Review of José Donoso's The Boom In Spanish American Literature: A Personal History (New York: Colombia University Press). Boston Review (Fall 1977).
Levinson, Brett. The Ends of Literature: The Latin American “Boom” in the Neoliberal Marketplace Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.